CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#wpfxaml
Joe J
Joe J

Reputation: 41

WPF control with Rich Text, No Word Wrap, and Selectable text

I need a control that is able to select the text displayed inside (read only) but I also need to be able to format the text with Bold and Italics because it's a journal citation. Furthermore, I'd like the control to be able to size according to the text or content(stretch). Here's an example:

Child and Family Behavior Therapy 26.1 (2004).

The closest I can get is a RichTextBox following this example. This TextBlock example is also close, but does not allow for font styling in-line (bold, italics, etc..).

Current RichTextBox solution

    richTextBox1.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility = ScrollBarVisibility.Visible;
    richTextBox1.Document.PageWidth = 1000;

Why this doesn't work: Journals can have long names and with the addition a description it's easy to reach the end of the Page, causing the content to wrap anyway. Conversely, a short-named journal that has no description still has a scroll bar leading to a ton of white space.

Current TextBlock/TextBox solution 

    <TextBox Background="Transparent"
     BorderThickness="0"
     Text="{Binding Text, Mode=OneWay}"
     IsReadOnly="True"
     TextWrapping="NoWrap" />

Why this doesn't work: I either use the default TextBlock and am unable to select the text (The user should be able to copy-paste), or use this TextBox binding and lose the styling functionality.

I'm still pretty new to WPF, and have minimal knowledge on how to edit some controls, such as buttons using OverridesDefaultStyle, ControlTemplate etc.. I just can't seem to find a control that has the three properties I need, or a way a control can be customized to do what I want. Any ideas?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1233

Answers (1)

andrei.ciprian
andrei.ciprian

Reputation: 3025

I would go for a custom TextBlock. RichTextBox seems overkill.

1) Scroll and sizing

<ScrollViewer CanContentScroll="True" HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled">
      <ns:SelectableTextBlock TextWrapping="NoWrap" x:Name="stb" TextSelected="stb_TextSelected"/>
</ScrollViewer>

This ensures the presence of the scroll bar for longer texts and its' absence for shorter ones. See this post.

2) Selection and copy/paste. See this post, and especially this answer. This piece of code on Rextester represents a modification to that example, a custom selectable TextBlock with selection highlighting that goes back and forth.

3) Styling and binding InlineCollection. Various ways of binding your citation model to TextBlock.Inlines, like here, or here.

Upvotes: 1

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